Flashing question mark on startup

I installed new Memory in my Mac Mini, went to turn it on and there was no tone, nothing spinning up just silence then a flashing "?" over a file folder appeared.....anyone know what this is and how to fix it?

OK...so you cracked open a mini, installed RAM, and now it won't work....

First off where did you get the RAM, is it Mac-certified? Second, did you already close up the mini? If not, insert the old RAM, and see if you can boot from that. If you can, then this would imply you have bad RAM, and need to return it. A flashing question mark is indicative of a lack of a starting drive (read- your HD got damaged). The lack of a tone, however, means that there is a motherboard or RAM issue at hand. I'm hoping that you didn't mess up the motherboard, but not out of the realm of possibility. Check your RAM first, and try the old one again.

I was careful of my surroundings, but any chance a magnet in the area caused this....i did not see a magnet or anything magnetic around....

Click to expand...

That is so unlikely that it's almost impossible. Everything in there is shielded, and you have a friekin' speaker in it with a magnet. Probably not the issue, so don't worry about it. Any luck with the zapping?

Well... good luck. Let us know how that goes. Like I said, there is very little physical damage that could have been done to everything. The one thing that concerns me is that the disk drive won't pull anything. Zapping the PRAM should (theoretically fix that). If not, strap the old RAM back, make sure you get rid of all signs of damage (in opening the case), and get it exchanged at the Apple Store.

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